She Who Lives In Her Name, The Principle Of Heirarchy

Journey to the Outside

And the angel of the sun did fall. She fell, down, down, from the sky, and into the emptiness beyond the world, beyond the things that were good and real, out where only false and nonexistent things might live.

And then they knew what it was to know darkness, to know meaninglessness, to lose all hope. The world, the whole and breadth of it, knew what it was like to be without a sun.

But at the same time...

...and, perhaps, this was most surprising of all...

At the same time and for the first time, the emptiness beyond knew what it was to have a sun.

And the whole of it changed.

--- Journey to the Outside, a fan campaign for Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine

So, I've been working, off-and-on, for a while on an idea I've had to do a Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine Epic Adventure campaign in the style of Journey to the West. I'm almost ready to get started running it, so I thought I'd share the stuff I've got so far. Instead of actually creating the mechanics for the characters, I'm giving descriptions and allowing the players to choose their Arcs on their own. I'll probably write up, at least, the starting Quests for each character, eventually, but I haven't gotten there yet. So far it's mostly just a list of characters and a bit of description for each one, and their variants.

Introduction

Jade Irinka is dead. The sun has fallen into the Outside and the world is reeling under a strange and alien sky. Each day a ball of blazing gas rises and sets, casting shadows and helping the plants to grow. But it is not the sun - and in their bones, the people of Town know it.

It is a mournful thing to live in a fallen world.

But there is hope. Or, rather, there is a chance for hope. Hope exists, but someone has to venture out into the Outside and get it. Someone has to go on a journey to save the world. And not just anybody: gods and monsters and villains… and also just some guy.

It sounds like it will be an Epic Adventure, doesn’t it?

Sidebar: Conventions

This campaign is an Epic Fantasy game featuring THREE Conventions, manifesting as level 2 Afflictions:

The stage may be small but audience is great

You are well known wherever you go

And

There’s always a place to stay when the weather gets bad

Here's the pencil sketch of that Fortitude Rat from before.

A pretty quick round of doodles of the four currently-released Chuubo's Main Characters.

A Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine Interlude by Rip van Mason

Over on RPG.net, I'm in a PbP game of the Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (an RPG by jennamoran) campaign Glass Maker's Dragon (I play Natalie Coutourier, the Vampire Prodigy) [You'll need to have an RPG.net account to click that link].

The game is being HGed by the incredible Rip van Mason.  And, in between doing some damn good HGing, he's been peppering little "Interlude" fictions into the game and they are amazing.  Like the best bits of micro-fiction I've ever seen in an RPG.  And, with his permission, I'm reprinting them here (mostly so jennamoran can see them because they're great and I think she'll get a kick out of them!)

Interlude I of IX – Childe Rider to the Farthest Tree Came

The Peerless Spirit

Academics Skill: Not Dumb but Extremely Unfocused Sports Skill: Without Equal Favorite Foods: Banana Cream Pie, Steak Tartare, Pineapple Blood Type: A+ Animal: Monkey Age: 5015 An Interesting Fact About You: You were grown from a seed! Character Description ❀ You are a spirit without peer, if that wasn’t clear enough. You live alone in the woods in a (treasure-filled) cave, doing whatever you like, whenever you like it. Your neighbors see you at best as a charming nuisance and at worst as a dangerous menace. You’re not an evil person, per se, but you are rude, arrogant, and selfish. Despite all of that, of course, you are often lonely. You’ve never been good at making real friends, not in your entire long life, And it has been a ridiculously long life, because… ❀ You are not human. Five thousand years ago, the Heron Queen planted a seed on a hillside under the noonday sun and you grew from that seed like a tree. Vines twine in your hair and flowers bloom at your temples when you’re embarrassed. You share a kinship with birds and can speak the language of squirrels and hedgehogs and moles. That’s just the sort of thing nature spirits can do. ❀ You’re probably going to go on this adventure just… because. You’re going to hear that the Light Seeker has a mission and they’re probably going to go out into the Near Outside and die, and you think that sounds like an awesome place for an awesome person like you. And you’re worried about him probably, too. Sidebar: Shake it Up! For an atypical Peerless Spirit experience, pick 0-2 of the following: ❀ Instead of Sonya, you can be Sonny Hou, a boy spirit ❀ Instead of a forest spirit, maybe you’re... ✶ … a fox-faced spirit ✶ … an ogre ✶ … a highly-advanced cyborg designated SWK-2456

Sidebar: Playing SWK-2456 You’re not a spirit at all! You’re an advanced combat cyborg! Don’t try to trick me! You were crafted ages ago by a team of scientists working to build a perfect organism. You were locked away in a cryosleep chamber for centuries, waiting for the right time to be revealed to an unsuspecting world. You’re a bit less full of bravado than Sonya is, but you are no less confident, your self-regard bolstered by inhuman calculation rather than pure pride. You’re definitely not as good at telling jokes as Sonya is.

A Test of the System

Let's try that now....

Quick doodle of a Fortitude Rat wizard I'm considering finishing up for wizardbattles. Maybe. Or not. I think I'm out of practice drawing wizards.

A quick doodle of Princess Hereford, of the Bear Fairies.  Don't ask,

Hello! I like your character concepts for Chuubo. I check the #cmwge tag often, but only discovered your work through third parties. Have you not been tagging them, or is Tumblr's tag system being wonky again?

I put #cmwge on all of these, I'm pretty sure(too tired to check), and definitely on this first several, so I don't know what to say.

"An Unreliable Narrative" - A Prototype Welcome to Night Vale Quest Set for Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine (Part 2)

Alright, so.  I should talk about what this Quest Set is “About” before I start making it, I think.

Since it’s the Cecil Quest Set, it’s going to be, primarily, about Strange Happenings and Emotional Reactions.  It’ll be about mildly dealing with the strange and terrible, being filled with apprehension or worry or passion, about facing off against the dark monsters around you, and about finding a new boyfriend, or finding out about your own weird past or finding that maybe, just maybe, you were wrong about someone… who was still a total jerk.  

Who else, other than Cecil might be on “An Unreliable Narrative” Arc?  Fox Mulder is probably on either the Bindings or Otherworldly version of this Arc.  Of the other characters of Night Vale, only Old Woman Josie seems to be on the the Cecil Arc*… probably a Shepherd or Mystic version of it.  I’m not sure who else off the top of my head.  

Anyways, quest by quest for the Cecil version of the set.

Storyteller 1:

This Quest is about simply dealing with strange happenstance.  Weird stuff is going on, but that doesn’t mean you need to get all bent out of shape about it!  Do what you’re doing.  Talk about the weird stuff.  You’ve got a job to do and you can’t let strange stuff get in the way.  Sounds like a Work-and-Study Quest to me.  Perhaps something like…

Stoic Witness

20 or 25 XP Quest

You’ve got a job to do.

The news won’t report itself.  The bagels won’t bake themselves.  There are strange things going on and you take note.  You watch them.  You talk about them.  But you don’t let them side track you.

After all.  People are counting on you.

✿ Stoic Witness (25 XP)

Major Goals

The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

You maintain your composure even as something world-changing and terrifying is happening just off screen.

You give up an opportunity for wealth, power, or happiness, because you have other duties to attend to.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest Flavor

1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:

✿ go about your work day as usual

✿ take pride in a job well done

✿ spend time admiring something simple (a flower, a cup of coffee, a stray cat)

✿ describe something strange you witnessed to another person

✿✿ give a monologue of seemingly nonsensical gibberish, ostensibly about the nature of reality, but with deep metaphorical relations to current events

✿✿ give a monologue of seemingly nonsensical gibberish, ostensibly about the nature of reality, but apropos of nothing

✿ pretend that what you’re doing is more important than it is

Or, the shorter version....

✿ Stoic Witness(Simplified) (20 XP)

Major Goals

The HG can award you 5 XP towards this quest when:

You maintain your composure even as something world-changing and terrifying is happening just off screen.

You narrate the events of a phantasmagoric dream state as they occur.

You can earn each bonus once, for a total of up to 10 XP.

Quest Flavor

1/chapter, you can earn a bonus XP towards this quest when you:

✿ talk about what’s going on around you

✿✿ talk about what’s going on with your everyday life

✿ spend time admiring something simple (a flower, a cup of coffee, a stray cat)

✿ describe something strange you witnessed to another person

✿ find yourself surrounded by water, snow, or strange mute children

✿✿ talk about things you cannot possibly know

✿ worry that you might be missing out on something because of work

Annoyingly, I didn't realize Tumblr wouldn't keep my coloring.  Anyway....

One Quest down.  I’m going to take another break…  this was the first thing I did when I woke up!

* I thought, with its themes, some of the other Night Vale characters might fit… but really, Carlos is on a Scientific Adventure.  The Apache Tracker was on a Heartwarming, Heart-rending Coming-of-Age Story Arc.  Tamika Flynn is on a Secret History, and The Man in the Tan Jacket and The Faceless Old Woman Who Lives in Your House seem to be on Numinous Gardens Arcs.  Intern Dana is probably on a Heartwarming, Heart-rending Coming-of-Age Story, too.